Our History

National History

On October 15th, 1885, the Dean of the School of Music at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, invited seven young women from the school to attend a meeting with the intention to form a society. A friend of the women and member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity suggested the idea to form a women’s fraternity. It was decided that such a group would benefit the students, the university, and the musical arts; thus the founding of Alpha Chi Omega.

A constitution and bylaws were drafted, the name, colors, flower, and motto were chosen, the first eight new members were selected, and their badge was designed all before Alpha Chi Omega was introduced to the university student body at convocation. On October 24, 1885, Alpha Chi Omega members, adorned with scarlet and bronze (later to become olive) green ribbons, made their presence known to the DePauw University.

Membership was limited to students in the School of Music, but within a few months this requirement was changed to include liberal arts students who were registered in any music course. Today, the music course requirement no longer exists, yet our Fraternity continues to appreciate our link to the fine arts.

Chapter History

The Story of Epsilon Lambda by Founding Member, Georganne Farr:

In early Spring of 1968, the Panhellenic Council decided to open the campus to national sororities. The Fraternities had already begun the process of bringing national fraternities to UTA. Two local girl sororities joined together to go Phi Mu in the late Spring months. The remaining local groups decided to meet with the groups interested in coming to Arlington in the late summer months. We, the members of Sans Souci, were eager to start the process. Marie Simmons was the collegiate Souci president. Many groups were interested in the campus; a few were not. Some groups such as Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta were not eager to come to the commuter campus. At that time, limited apartments, dorms or housing were available for students, so, yes, it was a commuter school. HOWEVER, those in the social clubs were determined to be an active part of the new opportunities National affiliation would bring.What happened next was exciting and hard.

Various groups came to the campus to that show each local group what they had to offer. It was like rush is today. Each of possible groups came with a program, a group of members from a nearby chapter, and sometimes the alums. We spent many hours on several Sundays going to rush. Once we met with all groups, we voted to see what group we wanted to pursue. The one we felt would be right from the beginning because of the girls from SFA we met and the wonderful Arlington Alums- was ALPHA CHI OMEGA. I called Mary Smith who served as one of the alums working with chapter growth for Alpha Chi. She told me the steps to be completed and the various meetings we still needed to have. Marie and I worked on a scrapbook of San Souci (founded at UTA in 1923) along with various recommendations and letters from school leadership. It was a tedious yet rewarding time. After completing our bid, we waited. Soon-late October or early November, Mary Smith and Sandi Singleton called to inform us that we had been accepted and would become an official Alpha Chi Omega chapter—Epsilon Lambda in February of 1969.

We started pledging and learning the new history, by-laws, songs etc. It was invigorating and overwhelming at the same time. Past Souci members were given the opportunity to become members, and that was fun as we saw the chapter grow. February 16, 1969 was the final day of celebration as we took our place on campus as one of the top groups. I couldn’t be happier with the choice we made. It was absolutely the right fit for us.